1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a parking assistance apparatus, and more particularly to a parking assistance apparatus in which the image of a scene behind a host vehicle is displayed.
2. Description of Related Art
An apparatus is proposed, in which the image of a scene behind a host vehicle is displayed to assist a driver in driving the host vehicle when the host vehicle is to be parked in a parking frame. For example, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2001-213253 (JP-A-2001-213253) describes an apparatus in which a guidance trajectory is displayed. The guidance trajectory is a trajectory along which a vehicle is estimated to move if the vehicle backs up with a steering angle being fixed to the maximum steering angle. In the apparatus described in the publication No. 2001-213253, information on surroundings, which is obtained by a sensor, and the position of the host vehicle are displayed on a display screen. In the apparatus described in the publication No. 2001-213253, a host vehicle symbol and the guidance trajectory are integrally displayed on the screen so that the vehicle starts to back up at a position at which the guidance trajectory falls within a parking space. Further, in the apparatus described in the publication No. 2001-213253, an estimated trajectory, whose shape is changed in accordance with the actual steering angle of a steering wheel, is also displayed. Thus, it is also possible to guide a steering operation by overlapping the estimated trajectory with the guidance trajectory.
However, in the above-described technology, the function of assisting the driver's operation at the time of parking is not sufficient, and thus, there is room for improvement.